Monday, November 2, 2009

What to Do Tonight: The Sounds

There’s something about Swedish new wave that, somewhat predictably, comes off as kinda frigid. It goes all the way back to Abba’s frosty pop take on the genre and stretches to the Sounds’ chilly nostalgic glances in 2009. The Sounds’ third album, Crossing the Rubicon, is filled with cool skittering synths and cascading keys — all guided by Maja Ivarsson’s ice-princess vocals. When the deep and hollow backing “oohs” blow onto “My Lover,” it’s time to bundle up. But Rubicon isn’t without its catchy songs. “No One Sleeps When I’m Awake” would have been huge on MTV in the early ’80s, and “Midnight Sun” is a big, glorious ballad about freezing your ass off waiting for the perfect love (at least that’s what I want it to be about). The Sounds tend to overload their songs with glacier-mounting, vista-scaling whooshes that often drain them of warmth. But when you’ve got hooks as big as Stockholm, who cares? Semi-Precious Weapons and Foxy Shazam open at 8 p.m. at House of Blues (308 Euclid Ave., 216.523.2583, houseofblues.com). Tickets: $20. —Michael Gallucci